>> this comes out of a 2.5 million investment through a 2008 parks and safety bond. corrects the access and updates landscaping and makes an open space open for more use. ♪ >> this was concrete now sand. this is a great example. i can't wait to climb and shoot baskets with some of the kids from shalom school as well. this is one of the great examples of our city's resources really helping to make our city more lovable.

>> today marks the beginning. a re-creation of community and hope. a re-creation of opportunity. we need simply this. you come, if you like this park. that you show the world when you invest in people that it matters. >> that concludes the general manager's report. although i believe commissioner lowe. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to compliment the staff and department on putting together a citizen's advisory committee for the palace of fine arts. being involved it is a very vibrant and vocal process. it encourage all to attend the public meetings on december 5th and december 12th.

there's a lot of creative and great ideas coming out of the process. i encourage all to attend. >> thank you. ditto that remark. that is right. let's move on. >> public comment. i have three cards. george wooding, katherine howard and andrea oleri. >> good morning commissioners. my name is george gooding. i represent the college for san francisco neighborhoods. i would like to speak for a moment. now that the election proposition b has concluded, it is time to take a closer look at the results and what the numbers really mean. the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods representing 46 groups, the more than 25 additional

organizations and is over 85,000 citizens have voted no on proposition b deeply love their parks, including people from conservative, moderate and progressive backgrounds. these people are joined together in their deep concern for the management of their park system. according to yesterday's sf examiner, the proponent spent over 950,000 promoting the bomb, the highest expenditure involving local propositions, over 100 times greater than mere funding spent by the no amb. in fact, yes amb spent 4 cents a vote compared to 10 cents a vote sent by no on b. despite this lopsided expenditure, if we compare to the 2008 bond it only managed to increase margin of support by less than

half a percent. why did this extraordinary campaign funding difference have so little difference on the electorate? the reason is san franciscans are concerned about the future of their parks. our parks need increased general funding for maintenance and operations. not another capital bond which will build new structures without the funds to manage, maintain and staff them. our parks need to be revered as parkland. not viewed as sites for potential development. our parks need to be held at public assets, not site specific revenue machines. our parks need funding source that does not depend on limiting access for very resources created with the intent that they be made available to everyone. we will continue to urge the management policies back to the core mission of providing the broadest access to parks for

everyone. giving all san franciscans a voice and stewarding precious resources for today and the future generations. >> thank you. >> katherine. >> i would like to echo mr. wooding's sentiments, all the people who worked on no on b. we love our parks. we think there are very serious issues that need to be addressed. we always look forward to working with the commission and department on these issues. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment? lewis, come on up. >> good afternoon commissioners. parks department. phil ginsberg and the general public. welcome to this timely

recreation and park meeting. 10 a.m. usually these were in the afternoon when more people from the public could attend them. and it wasn't so conflicting with their schedule. i feel that is the plan and design of this commission and this recreation and park department, which is to circumvent public access and public comment. notifying the public with a timely manner within the brown act, something that this government seems to circumvent. many, many violations of the sunshine department are

routine in this recreation and park department. cultivating the desecration of western culture. that is what is going on within this recreation and park department. if you cannot see either the ramifications or collateral damage this department has achieved, then you are seriously deceiving yourself and the general public. you have caused immense suffering, hardship and devastation to the bay area. city and county of san francisco and all of the people that have lived in

it. it is similar to the feeling in benghazi. september 11th, 2012. nobody here to answer your concerns. nobody here that cares. nobody here that is watching what is really going on. thank you for your time. have a great day. and enjoy your thanksgiving. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else? richard, come forward. that is not this one. it is the next one. okay. richard. >> good morning, commissioners and general manager. i would like to speak in support of what's happening on the complications we have been having throughout the county. i like the idea of innovative new projects or anything that comes up where trying to gain more capital for the department use. we are also looking at

different places where you don't have any funding, then you don't have programs. i would just like to give a little extra support to mr. ginsburg in trying to make up for what's not going to come from federal, state or county moneys, thank you. >> thank you. >> is there any public comment on the general manager's report? being none, public comment is closed. we are now on item number four, general public comments. at this time members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public within the support matter jurisdiction and do not appear on the agenda. with respect to agenda items your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. so andrea.

>> good morning commissioners, andrea leary. well-known and grass roots organizations from all sizes and all over san francisco were joined by almost 86,000 citizens to support a no-vote on proposition b. dedicated and informed citizens undertook this overwhelming task knowing important information about our park systems management was not being delivered through all the expected civic and media channels. park advocates are more dedicated and more devoted than ever to assure a voice for all the citizens, all of who love parks and are committed to realizing the system where parks serve people first not all their neighborhoods. of opponents of this bond entered this election with a goal of creating a debate. a real debate about the real condition of the parks and how we need to increase the general funding for maintenance and operations. we expected to look at for another bond within the next couple of years. giving us time to secure

some sort of funding resource in order to manage, maintain and staff park facilities that are closed. educated voters in san francisco want to show a leadership that we can reward leadership for good public policy that rewards and supports a department. if paid for by taxes, not -- at the expense of public service. looking to going forward to building a infrastructure of deeply committed incidents to support the department and redirect management policies back to its core purpose of stewarding resources and providing access to all parks versus select few. this is just a beginning for us. we are dedicated. we will see this through

and not going anywhere. we have a primary goal. the hard work on looking at the prize in the end to give a real voice to citizens of this city. to value and listen to what they have to say to restore access to the park and access back to our parks and citizenry. >> thank you. >> richard rothman and linda cutner. >> good morning commissioners and general managers. maybe it is time for good news. my name is richard rothman. i'm a city guide at coit tower but i'm speaking for myself today. i want to thank the general manager for what is going on at coit tower. when i started this for the second time a couple years ago the art commission in rec and park weren't

talking. but the general manager made staff changes, now the two -- art commission and rec and park are talking, which i think is a most important accomplishment. things are moving in the right direction at coit tower. right now they are working on doing emergency repair on the roof and in the spring. you need to start restoring the murals. apparently there won't be enough funding for all the works to go about raising more money for that. the other thing that concerns me -- my wife and i worked on this in 1998. there was a report that the art commission commissioned. one of the recommendations is there be periodical inspections of the murals in the building. this did not happen and led to what we are going

through now. this going forward -- i'm working with supervisor david chu's office that, we can find a mechanism to make sure these murals are protected. when there's damage coming that we be proactive in protecting the murals and need to think just like the museum of modern art or any museum we need to think of coit tower as a museum. though it wasn't designed as a museum, it was supposed to be a restaurant but it is what it is. hopefully we can go forward in making sure these murals will stay protected. thank you. >> thank you. >> linda. >> first i would like to

crate you. felt very honored, i would say, when i heard we were voted the best in the usa. i perform in parks all over the country, is it true. on a yalerly basis from new york to the bay down to a city called l.a. over to dallas and new orleans is it true. up to aspen and boulder too. i see many, many children every year, you see. i always can't wait back to my home by the bay. yes, i think our parks are number one, by the way. i'm here to talk about the holidays, is it true. once again it is the time of year for the elves to arrive in union square two. i will be there, yes, sir, siree. i hope to see all of your smiling faces, you see. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make general

public comment? being none, general public comment is closed. we are on item five, the consent calendar. is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the consent calendar. richard, please come forward. good morning again. i was looking over at the betty republican radiation center. i took liberty of going out there, looking around, seeing location. i talked to a facilitator there. they seem to have a little problem with the setup, where they are going to be going into program developments from the new $40 million from the park bond of trying to be monitored location. i believe it was already approved, that they will be able to have some type of

surveillance but there was an additional complication. young kids with their laptops and their ipads need to have better source of of wi-fi. if they get half dozen trying to do homework, it overloads the umbrella. i don't know what type of costs, whether it comes from programs or development. i would expect mr. ginsburg and his staff to rectify. but the little kids, they will be doing a lot of their after-school programs and stuff. they do need some of that type of -- how should i say it. high-tech communication devices present. probably be costly. another problem is if they are ever going to deal with

announcements, they will not be able to handle it too well. they only have one person and microphone is way in the front lower office. i don't know if they will get fiberoptics. i thought possibly they might use something that would be from cell phone to communication. that way be able to get on the loud speaker system. another park in looking over the betty anne long is the structure of the place. i don't know that i got the message yet. i got to look. looks down and i thought they should have a structure and take a once look over, a crack on different floors. there were crooks on the corridor parts. office parts. they are not too bad. i think the facility was informed and fulfilled the safety requirements, thank you. >> is there any other

general public comment? >> good afternoon commissioners, general manager of recreation and park department. members of the public. a little food for thought for you to chew on over thanksgiving. and hopefully you won't choke on it. september 11th, 2011 mayor willie brown, given advance warning of the nation's worst terrorist attack since pearl harbor. if only he had have told betty anne ong not to travel on september 11th, then we wouldn't have had to have -- >> i just have to remind you, that was a tragic event. i think you just have to show a little respect for

that situation here in this room. >> absolutely. >> yet it was a very tragic event, september 11th. if you were in san francisco at that time, you were getting evicted from your stable, which was being managed by recreation and parks department and the commission here. you were told that you were going to get your facilities modernized. your stalls enlarged. that was ten years ago. you are sitting there asking me to have respect for september 11th? what if you owned a horses in san francisco september 11th, 2001. your tone would be a bit different, mr. buell. you seem to have total contempt for this city, the people that live in it. especially people that have recreational activities in it. yes, you, my friend, are the person with the

character flaw. you, my friend, are the person with lack of respect. you, my friend, are the abs salute epitome of what is wrong with this country. yes, my friend, when people have served the city and county of san francisco and their country in any capacity to get booted out at that time is unforgivable. there is nothing that you can say or do that will ever undo the gross cultural damage this recreation park department and commission achieved. absolutely unforgivable. thank you very much. >> is there anyone else who would like to make general

public comment? being none, this item is closed. we are on item five, the consent calendar. is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the consent calendar? being none, this item sem closed commissioners. >> move to approve consent. >> second. >> moved and seconded. all in favor, opposed? hearing none, unanimous. item six is the san francisco zoo. >> good morning. congratulations again on the parks. it is terrific, the park bond. thank you for all that good work. tonya peterson, director of the san francisco zoo. i will start with october. we finished with slightly over 50,400, versus 48,000.

the report is overbudget by 2,400 visitors. happy to announce november attendance is commencing well, especially on veteran's day. for the month of november the zoo was overbudget by 7,000 visitors. year-to-date attendance is 335,000 visitor, versus budget of 319,000 visitors, approximately a 5% lead. will position in case of heavy rains this winter. i have been asked at times why the zoo attracts attendance. simply put it informs us how much funds we have to spend on animal care, conservation, education, facility support as we go through the fiscal year. the same is also true for members, supporting conservation and education programs. don't forget the donors. they restrict projects to certain projects and

animals. the funds from attendance and membership that supports mainly the facility, thank you. with that, speaking of attendance, i'm going to go to the slide show here. we are thankful local groups help raise the awareness of the zoo. as i speak hockey players from the san francisco bulls are actually at the zoo this morning. they are passing out icy fish pucks to the bears and helping us kick off the winter programs. there is something appropriate about bulls visiting a zoo. part of our programming, santa's favorite have arrived. think of peppermint, bell, holly and velvet, to help teach the children about north america conservation. another thing we do is we delivered ten tons of snow for our polar bears.

our polar bears are ulu and pica. i have a picture, there we go. there's pica, our 30-year-old polar bear. she was born in a zoo but ulu, who is 32, was rescued from canada. she was about to be euthenized for encroaching into the village. historically ulu has not wanted snow. she is like a new yorker moving to florida but i hear she is enjoying the snow. so this is a fun day and weekend for the animals, so thank you all for that. speaking of holidays, we are trying something new this year. we are going to do wild lights. the zoo will be lit up. of course the lights will have animal and wild themes, open until 8:00. this is free for zoo members. i think it gives a chance for families and members to enjoy the zoo during the

evening, so we look forward to that. speaking of winter, it is time for winter zoo camp. 's some of the campers. this is run for two weeks, run by joe fitting, vice president of education over 30 years. hundreds of thousands of kids come through the camp programs annually and informational fees can be found on our zoo web site. speaking of kids this year we have partnered with the san francisco public library. they have come on the san francisco free days. this has been wildly popular. we think the public libraries on the first wednesday, free services from the library. if the kids can't come to the zoo, we go to them through the zoo mobile program we take zoos to underserving areas . this is russell crowe. can you believe we had a

crow as a pet? unfortunately due to that he can no longer be released to the wild. we have been bringing russell to the kids in the class rooms and he receives rave reviews. thank you, russell. who knew. on other good news, i want to thank the staff. here is our sumatran female. she is awake while she is probed with gels and other medical advices. in the front we are taking an ultrasound of her uterus because she's just recently been housed with our male. we are hoping to see hopefully young tigers in that uterus. but this is a great process and procedure. she is not under anesthesia. we are one of the few able to do with a tiger while she lay awake. because of those efforts the zoo has been cited in a book that's coming out on

zoo animal welfare. chapter 8 is about the san francisco zoo. in particular our rescued grizzlies. this is authored by one of the world-renowned psychologists and experts. he is a consultant, psychologist and professor in residence. we are very honored we made chapter eight. with that i thank you and my zoo report. is there any public comment on this item? >> hello again. i took a look at the zoo master plan. there seems to be a need to update the water parameter to it. the use of ground water. it is old standard. that was my only comment about what's going on at the zoo.

to upgrade the zoo master plan, the water issue. thank you. >> richard rothman. >> commissioners and general manager, while we were successful in restoring our coit tower, we have another building, the mother's building at the zoo. i don't know if the commissioners are aware but the official title systematical the dalia memorial building. i think it is in honor of the former commissioner this building needs to be restored. i did research. there was an effort in '88 and '89 to restore the building. the art commission is responsible for the murals or art work in the building and reck and park owns the building, i guess it is managed by